The 2023 Project AWARE II Conference took place June 13 and 14 in Summersville, WV. State Leadership Team members from WVDE, MURC, WVDHHR’s BBH attended the conference alongside the LEA Coordinators, teachers, administrators, counselors, social workers, and mental health professionals from Fayette, Logan, and Wirt County schools. There were approximately seventy-five (75) people in attendance representing nine (9) grant funded schools. Nutmeg made a celebrity appearance to co-facilitate a session about therapy dogs. Several agencies set up exhibit tables with resources and materials.
In addition to participating in a variety of educational sessions, the county teams spent four hours working together to plan out their 2023-2024 school year. They worked two hours with Crystal Criswell or Tiffany Pittman from Marshall University’s School Health Technical Assistance Center, Division of Community Health, School of Medicine to work on their AWARE Strategic Plans for next year. Teams updated those plans to recognize goals accomplished and lessons learned over the last two years, incorporate data gathered from the AWARE evaluation team and from within the schools, and integrate best practices shared during conference sessions.
Each team spent an hour with Christy Fubio from the West Virginia Behavior/Mental Health Technical Assistance Center to work on their Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) plans. Finally, they worked on their 2023-2024 calendars with Amy Knicely from the Marshall University Center of Excellence for Recovery to make sure their plans become reality.
